Best Binoculars

2009

Welcome to my Best Binocular and Binocular Reviews blog! If you’re in search of a pair of binoculars which will measure up to your needs, you have come to the right place. I’m Mike and I seek to furnish nature lovers like me with all the information I have about binoculars. If you have newly acquired the delightful hobby of bird-watching or astronomy, I hope that this blog will help you in your way of getting a pair of good binoculars which will greatly enhance your experience.

Best Binoculars Reviews – My Top Picks

Here are some of my favorite binoculars reviews.

You can find more binocular reviews at my blog here.

How to Choose the Best Binoculars?

One pair of binoculars may be best for one person but less satisfactory for another. Each pair of binoculars has different features and specifications which need to be carefully selected to suit the person and the function it is put to. Therefore, you should consider the following before you decide which binoculars to put into your shopping cart.

First, I would choose the best binoculars based on its use and main function, such as:

  • General Purpose
  • Bird Watching
  • Astronomy
  • Watching Sports or Concerts
  • Hiking/Nature Trip

Then I will choose the right features of the binoculars to suit its function.

Features of binoculars are:

  • Power and light
  • Field of view (FOV)
  • Eye relief
  • Center Focus or Individual Focus
  • Porro Prism or Roof Prism
  • Lens Coating

Other concerns will be:

  • Daytime or night use? – to determine size of exit pupil
  • Mild or harsh conditions? (Whether in parks, jungles or stadiums; in or out of the rain) – waterproof or non-waterproof
  • How will you carry your binoculars? (Binocular straps or tripod) – to see how heavy your binoculars should be
  • Do you wear glasses? – whether you need longer eye relief

Now that you have a general idea for the above matter, you can decide what specifications your new pair of binoculars should have. If you want to know more about specifications and details, click here.

Best Binoculars Guide

Here’s a short summary for you to get a better idea what kind of binoculars you would need:-

General Purpose

  • multi-coated and bigger objective lenses for good light
  • individual focus
  • waterproof
  • lightweight
  • My personal opinion is that if you don’t have a specific purpose to put your binoculars to, get one that is affordable to try out, such as the Bushnell Powerview 8×21 or the Olympus Tracker 8×25; but if you have several purposes, get the overall champion Nikon Monarch ATB 8×42
Bushnell Powerview 8x21

Bushnell Powerview 8x21

Olympus Tracker 8x25

Olympus Tracker 8x25

Nikon Monarch ATB 8x42

Nikon Monarch ATB 8x42

Birdwatchers

  • be sure to get lightweight birding binoculars which are comfortable on your neck and easier to hold for hours
  • fully multi-coated or at least multi-coated for the great image quality (you don’t want to miss the colors and details)
  • center focus for faster and up close focusing unless you’re always looking at distant birds
  • reasonably wide exit pupil for working in dim light
  • waterproof
  • rubber housing to avoid making noises that will scare the birds away
  • popular sizes are 8×40, 8×42, 10×40, 10×42
  • My recommendation: Nikon Monarch ATB 8×42 (review)

Nikon Monarch ATB 8x42

Nikon Monarch ATB 8x42

Stargazers

  • astronomy binoculars or night vision binoculars with wider exit pupil (about 7mm) and fully multi-coated
  • if you’re going to use a tripod, heavier binoculars shouldn’t be a problem so might as well go for the porro prism binoculars with larger front lenses
  • individual eyepiece focusing
  • popular sizes are 7×50, 8×40, 8×42, 10×50 without a tripod; and 10×70, 20×80, 25×100 with tripod
  • I prefer: Nikon Action 10×50
Nikon Action 10x50

Nikon Action 10x50

Sports fan

  • wider field of view
  • waterproof binoculars in case it rains
  • lightweight
  • My favorite binoculars for sports and concerts: Olympus Tracker 8×25 (review)
Olympus Tracker 8x25

Olympus Tracker 8x25

Hikers

  • lightweight and compact binoculars for easier transport
  • waterproof
  • popular sizes are 8×25, 10×25
  • I strongly recommend: Pentax Papilio 6.5×21

Pentax Papilio 6.5x21

Pentax Papilio 6.5x21

Best First Binoculars

Olympus Tracker 8×25 Porro Prism Compact and Lightweight Binoculars

Olympus Tracker 8x25

Olympus Tracker 8x25

If you are buying your first pair of binoculars, not wanting to spend too much but would like to get a decent one for general use, the Olympus Tracker 8×25 is what I put on top of my recommendations list.

Great features of the Olympus Tracker 8×25:

1) Bak4 high quality optical glass prisms fully multicoated for best clarity. Porro prisms offer better quality for the price yet combined with stylish smooth-edged design.

2) Being compact and lightweight, it gives you no problem for bringing it everywhere.

3) A wide 315-feet field of view at 1000 yards and 8x magnification – excellent for concerts and sporting events.

4) Comes with built-in photochromatic anti-glare lenses that protect you from sun rays.

5) Center focus for quick focus adjusting and diopter correction for individual eyesight.

Although the Olympus Tracker 8×25 is not waterproof, nor is it first-class binoculars in dim light conditions given its 25mm objective lens, it is delightful enough and reasonably priced for first timers.

Binoculars Specifications and Features

Power and light

If you ever wondered what the numbers “7×25” or “8×40” mean: the first number represents the power of magnification, and the second number is the diameter of the front lens. The larger the first number is, the larger the object is magnified, but it would also mean the reducing of image brightness, field of view and image stability. You may find that the image is not so steady when holding binoculars with more than 10x magnification in your hands. For these kind of binoculars, you can use a tripod.

Need great performance in low light conditions? The second number will mainly affect the brightness and sharpness of the image.  Whether you are going to enjoy a starlit night or to look out for the early birds at dawn, you will need a larger exit pupil for your binoculars. The exit pupil is the beam of light exiting the binoculars and is obtained by dividing the second number with the first number. For example, a pair of “8×40” binoculars will have a 5mm exit pupil. For normal daylight viewing, 2.5 – 4mm is good enough, but a wider exit pupil is required for astronomy or nightlife watching.

However, I will not recommend an exit pupil larger than 7mm because it is then larger than the human eye pupil and the excess will be gone to waste. Possibly binoculars with exit pupils larger than 7mm are for marine and viewing on unsteady grounds, where a bigger exit pupil will be easier to keep centered on the eye.

But of course, the exit pupil is not the ultimate factor of image brightness. Lens coating and optical quality should also be taken into consideration.

Field of view and eye relief

Field of view means the area you see in the binoculars image. It is determined by the power of magnification and eyepiece angle. Personally I think a wide field of view is only important for those who want to watch sports or events in a stadium, where action takes place over a larger area.

Eye relief is the maximum distance you may position your eyes from the lenses and still see the entire field of view. This is something you want to take note of if you wear eyeglasses, because eyeglasses will prevent you from putting your eyes as close as possible to the lenses and you don’t want to end up seeing only the center part of the image. A 14-15mm eye relief is standard for eyeglasses wearers but if you wear thicker eyeglasses, you might want to consider binoculars with a longer 17-20mm eye relief.

Prisms

There are two kinds of prisms in binoculars – the porro prism and the roof prism. Porro prism binoculars are the older type which has offset eyepiece and lenses in zigzag shape, while roof prism binoculars are modern-looking with straight, sleeker housing. The Porro prism is a simple and efficient technology for binoculars. It needs less cost to make than the roof prism binoculars which is complex and requires great optical precision. Nonetheless, roof prism binoculars are more popular now due to its appealing design.

Porro prism binoculars

Porro prism binoculars

Roof prism binoculars

Roof prism binoculars

Tips for those who are considering medium or low priced binoculars: porro prism binoculars will offer better performance in image quality for the money. But they’ll be bulkier and relatively less convenient to store or carry around though.

Lens coating

I’m sure that if you’re still reading this, you’re not looking for a pair of economy binoculars with plastic lenses. A pair of decent binoculars will have coating on its lenses which allow more light to go through instead of being reflected, giving you brighter images.

There are several levels of coating for binoculars:

Fully coated binoculars (FC) – all lenses of the binoculars are coated with a single layer of magnesium fluoride.

Multi-coated binoculars (MC) – some lenses of the binoculars are coated with multi layers of chemicals. This is better than single layer coating.

Fully multi-coated binoculars (FMC) – all lenses of the binoculars are multi-coated. This is the highest level of coating to give you the best and brightest images.

Fully multi-coated (FMC) binoculars are not cheap, of course, but you’ll never experience hazy images. For a less expensive but acceptable alternative, get at least multi-coated (MC) binoculars which will have some but not all lenses coated in multi-layered chemicals.

Focusing

Some people need their binoculars to focus on objects very close up, but some would like it to focus on distant things. So you might want to choose the type of focusing suitable for your needs.

The most common type of focusing for binoculars is the center focus. Using a single wheel, it can focus on objects both very close and far away. I would recommend this for birdwatchers and insect lovers.

Another is the individual eyepiece focus, which allows you to focus each eyepiece separately, but once focused it will always stay focused from 40 yards to infinity. This is excellent for observing mid range to long range objects, but not at all suitable for seeing objects closer up. As you would guess, stargazers will prefer this.

Some binoculars also come with diopter adjustment for differences in strength between the right and left eye.

Other features

Waterproof – Waterproof binoculars prevent the inside of lenses from fogging up in the rain, and will be less susceptible to dust. You’d love this if you take your binoculars outdoors for nature trips. No more hiding them in the bag when it rains!

Rubber housing – Some binoculars are “armored” with rubber housing. They are better protected from scratches, make less noise when accidentally knocked on something, and also allow for a firmer grip. With this feature, you’ll never again scare the birds away.

My Top Picks – Best Binoculars

You can find more recommendations in my best binocular and binocular reviews blog below:

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